Emerging techniques in assessment and treatment of muscle tension dysphonia.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to summarize current evidence regarding treatment for muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) and to present recent advances in evaluation and management.

RECENT FINDINGS: It is generally accepted that voice therapy for MTD is effective, but current systematic reviews report limited evaluation specific to MTD patients with moderate evidence, at best, available to support voice therapy techniques. Individual studies are difficult to compare because of heterogeneity. Considerable work is underway to identify most important metrics to include in assessment, and to advance and define direct voice therapy approaches.

SUMMARY: Further standardization of assessment and treatment protocols for MTD will improve future research. Novel therapeutic techniques are under investigation. In small studies, these have found value in improving voice outcomes and measures compared with pretreatment values but have not met success greater than existing therapeutic methods.